Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Old "False-Flag Trick"?

"Ahem -- yeah, well, we'll take it from here": Government security personnel take suspected terrorist UmarFaroukAbdelmutallab into custody in Detroit after passengers did all the hard stuff -- subduing him when his "lap bomb" failed to detonate and extinguishing the incendiary device.

You know, Chief, this nude bomb might solve a lot of problems. For one thing, flashers.... And there'd be no more trouble with concealed weapons. I mean, if everyone were nude, there'd be no place to hide a gun or knife. Well, there is a place, but it could be painful.

Maxwell Smart, the redoubtable Agent 86, finding the upside to KAOS's terrorist threat to destroy the world's clothing with its dreaded Nude Bomb.*

There is plentiful evidence to suggest that the same Regime acted as an accomplice -- most likely a passive one -- in that same failed bombing attempt. Call it a delayed-action nude bomb: One Nigerian nutcase conceals a firecracker in his wedding tackle, and before long everybody will have to strip nude in order to fly.

Granted, the nudity would be "virtual," temporary, and limited in its exposure. Passengers would be violated one at a time by the same thoughtful people who have made a career out of rifling through other people's dirty underwear.

A third alternative is to avoid commercial aviation outright whenever possible. I suspect an ever-larger number of Americans are going to join me in choosing what's behind door number three.

Government is the only human enterprise that profits from failure. Once that principle is understood, many otherwise inexplicable choices made by ruling elites and their servants can be made intelligible.

For instance, we can begin to understand the perverse persistence governments display in courting preventable catastrophes, and then capitalizing on such incidents to enhance their powers to do exactly the same things that resulted in disaster. In this case, in addition to requiring the helotry to undergo unconscionable personal violations before flying, the Regime is exploiting the incident aboard Northwest Flight 253 to escalate the ongoing military assault on Yemen, thereby increasing the human misery that helps propel international terrorism.

And so it is that the Regime -- which has squandered trillions of debased dollars in the name of "fighting terrorism" (hundreds of billions to build a domestic garrison state, and even greater sums to conduct wars of aggression overseas) -- will continue to do exactly the same thing following an episode that demonstrates, beyond serious dispute, that the "war on terror" has done exactly nothing to make Americans safer.

While it's not clear that the flight was in mortal danger, it is clear that the plot failed because a detonator failed to ignite, and a group of passengers shed the shackles of government-imposed docility to subdue the terrorist suspect. The attempt to massacre the passengers of Flight 253 was stopped without the Regime's help -- and in spite of what has to be considered, at very best, the Regime's criminal negligence.

UmarMutallab as a student in London (left); his father, Nigerian banking official UmarMutallab the elder (below, right).

Owing to what must have been an anguished report from his father, UmarAbdulmutallab was known to the CIA and the State Department as a potential terrorist. UmarMutallab the elder, a banking official from Nigeria, met personally with CIA officials to express concerns that his son -- who had gone to Yemen for the supposed purpose of studying Arabic -- was falling into the company of suspected terrorists.

Additional layers of official negligence were revealed by a passenger named Kurt Haskell, who was next to Abdumutallab as the would-be bomber checked in at the airport in Amsterdam:

"An Indian man in a nicely dressed suit around age 50 approached the check in counter with the terrorist and said `This man needs to get on this flight and he has no passport.' The two of them were an odd pair as the terrorist is a short, black man that looked like he was very poor and looks around age 17 (although I think he is 23 he doesn't look it). It did not cross my mind that they were terrorists, only that the two looked weird together. The ticket taker said `you can't board without a passport.' The Indian man then replied, `He is from Sudan, we do this all the time.' I can only take from this to mean that it is difficult to get passports from Sudan and this was some sort of sympathy ploy. The ticket taker then said `You will have to talk to my manager,' and sent the two down a hallway. I never saw the Indian man again as he wasn't on the flight. It was also weird that the terrorist never said a word in this exchange. Anyway, somehow, the terrorist still made it onto the plane. I am not sure if it was a bribe or just sympathy from the security manager."

Haskell also says that he stood a few yards away from another Indian man who was handcuffed and held in customs "after a bomb sniffing dog detected a bomb in his carry on bag and he was searched after we landed. This was later confirmed while we were in customs when an FBI agent said to us `You are being moved to another area because this area is not safe. Read between the lines. Some of you saw what just happened.'.... What also didn't make the news is that we were held on the plane for 20 minutes AFTER IT LANDED!. A bomb could have gone off then. This wasn't too smart of security to not let us off the plane immediately."

Assuming that Haskell's account is correct, Abdulmutallab received some variety of official help to board the plane, and may have been part of a team of bombers. The reported connection to India is of particular interest, given a growing dispute between Mumbai and Washington over a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen allegedly involved in the 2008 terrorist rampage at the TajMahal Hotel that left 166 people dead.

David Headley (nee DaoodSyedGinlani; he changed his name in 2006) moved from Pakistan to Philadelphia in 1977.

After being convicted of heroin smuggling in 1998, Ginlani served 15 months before agreeing to work as an informant for the DEA.Indian officials believe that Headley/Ginlani was working for the federal government -- the CIA and FBI, in addition to the DEA -- up until last October, when he was arrested in Chicago.

After wading in the tenebrous waters of the global "intelligence community," brief recap is appropriate here:

The CIA was informed that Abdumutallab was a potential terrorist. Yet he wasn't put on the "no-fly list," and was even permitted to board a U.S.-bound plane without a passport. The individual who reportedly shepherded the bomber aboard the plane was a well-dressed, official-looking fellow from India. After Flight 253 landed in Detroit, a second individual from India was arrested after a bomb was detected in his luggage.All of this happens a little more than a year after India suffered an horrific terrorist attack in which (according to both U.S. and Indian intelligence officials) an American intelligence asset named David Headley was implicated. Headley is in the custody of the government that employed him as an informant, and which now refuses to permit investigators representing a supposed ally to interrogate him.

Those of a cynical cast of mind might wonder if RAW (the Research and Analysis Wing, India's CIA) had helped Abdumutallab hitch a ride on Flight 253 in order to send a message to Langley. Those whose cynicism is a bit riper might wonder if the boys at Langley had become aware of the plot involving Abdumutallab and permitted it to go forward in the service of Washington's agenda -- which includes escalating a previously covert military campaign in Yemen, the country where the jockstrap bomber reportedly was tutored in terrorism by al-Qaeda.

Whenever somebody ventures into conspiratorial speculation of this kind he can expect a reminder from the bien-pensants that government is too inept to carry out secret schemes of such detail and complexity.

Dismissive arguments of that kind generally come from people who are quite convinced of the ability of that same incompetent government to carry out very challenging undertakings, such as running a nationalized health-care system, or creating western-style democracy in Iraq.

While it is true that government is incurably incompetent with respect to any genuinely worthwhile productive enterprise, it is an astonishingly efficient engine of plunder and destruction. However useless the CIA and its kindred agencies may be in collecting and analyzing reliable intelligence, they display considerable gifts when it comes to arranging politically useful mischief.

One useful case study that bears more than a passing resemblance to the abortive bombing of Flight 253 in the plot to carry out a bombing rampage in New York City following the first World Trade Center attack in 1993.

Omar Abdel-Rahman, the radical Egyptian mullah who was convicted in 1996 of inspiring and giving direction to that plot, became a CIA asset in 1987, despite the fact that he was on a State Department terrorist "watch list."

Abdel-Rahman's role was to recruit mujahadeen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, and to act as a cut-out to provide them with financial and material aid. He remained on the CIA's payroll after the Red Army left Afghanistan in January 1989.

In 1990, Abdel-Rahman obtained a visa to travel to the United States -- once again, despite the fact that his name was on a "watch list." It was his monumental good fortune to apply for that visa at the U.S. consulate in Khartoum while the official who usually handles such details was out to lunch; that official's replacement was a CIA operative.

Abdel-Rahman's relocation to Brooklyn was arranged by a small knot of radicals who included at least two people who were on Washington's payroll: Mahmoud Abouhalima, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood (the taproot of modern Islamic terrorism and -- not surprisingly -- a major beneficiary of CIA largesse) who had been part of a CIA-sponsored mujahadeen group in Afghanistan; and former Special Forces Captain Ali A. Mohammed, an Egyptian-born member of Islamic Jihad who had recruited and trained Muslim warriors to fight in Afghanistan.

Mohammed, it was later revealed, also worked as an informant for the FBI. It's not clear if he was on the Bureau's payroll at the time of the 1993 WTC bombing. If so, that means that there were two FBI assets within that cell -- Mohammed and an Egyptian intelligence agent named Emad Salem.

Although the January 1993 WTC bombing failed to achieve its objective -- which was to collapse one of the towers into the other, creating a domino effect that would have slaughtered thousands -- the assault did kill several people and injure hundreds more.

Salem, who secretly recorded many of his conversations with his FBI handlers, later revealed that the FBI had detailed prior knowledge of that plot and had promised him that the WTC bomb would secretly be rendered inert before it was used.

"You saw this bomb went off ... and you know that we could avoid that," Salem rebuked FBI special agent John Anticev following the blast. "You get paid, guys, to prevent things like this from happening."

How many federal assets does it take to build a terrorist bomb? There are at least two in this picture. One of them, Egyptian intelligence agent/FBI informant Emad Salem, is the figure in green with his back to the camera.

After the bombing, the FBI inserted Salem into the cell once again. In that capacity he helped create a "battle plan" that targeted various official buildings in New York City, as well as the Holland and London tunnels.

On June 23, 1993, FBI agents arrested the plotters as they were mixing fertilizer and diesel fuel to build another bomb.

This story (which I have recounted in greater detail elsewhere) took a really interesting turn just shortly before Abdel-Rahman's trial. Ali Mohammed, who played a central role in the first WTC attack, was listed as an "un-indicted co-conspirator" with Abdel-Rahman. Roger Stavis, the attorney for indicted co-conspirator El Sayyd Nosair, attempted without success to deliver a subpoena to Mohammed as a defense witness. Mohammed -- who was in federal custody -- didn't answer the summons.

Intelligence analyst J.M. Berger, publisher of the valuable Intelwire news service, points out that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who was considered the Justice Department's "top gun" on al-Qaeda, regarded Mohammed as the architect of "al Qaeda's terrorist infrastructure in the U.S."

On the basis of his extensive study of the available evidence, Berger concludes that Mohammed "called the shots" on the 1993 WTC bombing -- the man behind Ramzi Yousef, the individual convicted of building the bomb -- and was the most important organizer of the network behind the 9/11 assault.

And Mohammed -- a former U.S. Special Forces sergeant and FBI asset -- is being protected by the Regime to this day.

Many serious and sober people believe that the accepted narrative of the 9/11 atrocities is entirely fictitious. But in light of the role played by veteran U.S. asset Ali Mohammed, it's incontestable that the attack was, in some sense, an "inside job" even if one accepts the standard "nineteen Muslims armed with boxcutters" version of the event.

According to the Regime, Abdulmuttab is telling his interrogators that there are many more mad bombers in the pipeline. This is probably true, and it's likely that at least some, if not most, of them have cashed checks written by the same people who hired the likes of Adbel-Rahman and Ali Mohammed.

It's doubtful that this side of eternity we'll ever learn the full truth about 9/11 or the first World Trade Center bombing. But we have learned enough from those atrocities, as well as subsequent episodes of what Lew Rockwell aptly calls "security theater," to justify suspicions that the Christmas drama aboard Flight 253 was another example of what Maxwell Smart, the patron saint of self-important spooks, would call the old "False-Flag Trick."

___*Yes, I'm aware that this quote comes from the dismal, vulgar, and lifeless 1980 film The Nude Bomb, which discerning Smartians consider apocryphal at best.

Be sure to tune in for Pro Libertate Radio each weeknight from 6:00-7:00 Mountain Time (7:00-8:00 Central) on the Liberty News Radio Network.

Regarding your comment about the bien-peasents not being able to fathom and incredibly complex intragovernmental conspiracy, you may be interested to read my thoughts on conspiracies here: http://thejungleiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2009/10/thinking-critically-about-conspiracy.html

I echo the concern that Haskell might not be able to distinguish between an Indian and a Pakistani, especially if they were living in europe for a time. I agree that the state is one step ahead of us in terms of machevellian mischief making, but the story only loses one layer of complexity if the well dressed man is isi instead of Indian intelligence. As for sending a message to Langley, eight CIA officers killed eight wounded in a CIA base in the afghan pakistan border should have done just that. Like the scene in untouchables in the elevator where the mob guy kills Ness' guy and still has the time to write touchable on the wall. Keep breathing, keeping fighting, boss!

I don't understand how this is being pushed as a failure of the system.It's clearly been a huge success: They got enormous exposure on a slow news day/weekend/week, so, great timing. It backwardly validated the slaughter of innocent Yemeni's the previous week and the police state got to ratchet itself another few clicks tighter. How was that a failure?

""Ahem -- yeah, well, we'll take it from here": Government security personnel take suspected terrorist Umar Farouk Abdelmutallab into custody in Detroit after passengers did all the hard stuff -- subduing him when his "lap bomb" failed to detonate and extinguishing the incendiary device. "

When I read that caption, it reminded me of the ending scene of "Lord of War."

Lemuel does not have a blog, and has been keeping a low profile since scaring himself with what he posted re. 9-11 and fearing for his continued physical comfort.

I did post a few comments right at the end of Mr. Grigg's last essay on the Christmas Truce of 1914.

Bill @ 8:21 am,I think you have hit the nail on the head.

All,Most of the spectacular crimes in America (as opposed to the liquor-store holdup variety) are originated or abbetted by the State and/or its agencies in order to justify their control and bloodsucking of We The Peasants. Or, in some cases, to make staggeringly immense profits for their corporate friends, by whom they are rewarded with cushy jobs after leaving politics.**

Operation Northwoods, the Kennedy assassination, (only partly due to JFK's squashing of Operation Northwoods,) the RFK and MLK assassinations, 9-11-2001, the Vietnam War, the present wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the entire Cold War (which lasted 45 years and ALMOST annihilated the world,) not to mention the TARP plundering of the American taxpayer, the Bernie Madoff mega-heist, (which was NOT a Ponzi, but a plain old theft - the $65 billion now sits in Israeli banks, less commissions earned by the Clinton and Bush families) and the Jewish Oligarchs' attempted plundering of Russia (which lost me personally many thousands of dollars' investment in YUKOS,) -- all of it was just power and money grabs on a scale which has never before been seen in the history of the world, and probably in the whole Universe of sentient beings.

I said this before - NOTHING coming from the media and government is what it seems. EVERYTHING is a lie. Keep telling yourself that and you will live a wiser, if less contented, life.

America, America. From sea to shining sea. Truly a marvel - one of the most successful accomplishments of Satan in his long history of mischief-making. Wherever men try to build something good, Satan hustles about tramping up and down, seeking whom he might devour. So the Good Book tells us.

I would not be surprised even for a second if we learned (which we never will) that the Nigerian was either deliberately allowed to pursue his plans unhindered or was even officially helped to get on board that plane. They have been trying for a long time now to install scanners in airports which will reveal the size of your tits or your penis under your clothes, and meeting stiff resistance. (Ha, ha. Joke intended.) If they could coldly kill 3,000 Americans on 9-11, and a million Iraqis since, plus presidents at home and abroad, humanitarians, UN Secretaries-General, Popes, and 100 million people in WW1 and WW2, then of what consequence are a couple of hundred airline passengers?

Not for nothing does the Bible call Satan "The Prince Of This World." And not for nothing did Jesus say, "My Kingdom is not of this world." This world is a sick, sick place.

This is not going to change. All we can do is try to bring a little spark of paradise into our own small corner of the world. Mr. Grigg has done that by raising a fine family and loving his wife with his whole heart despite her chronic illness. The smallest acts of goodness can have immense consequences.*** (As too can the smallest acts of evil.)

Happy New Year! May you discover an acre of Paradise in your backyard this year.

Barrick Gold is today the largest gold mining company in the world. All through the Reagan and GHW Bush Administrations, this insignificant (at the time) Canadian (NOT American) gold mining company was trying to obtain the lease on a gold claim prospect in Nevada, USA, without success. When he lost his bid for re-election in 1992, GHW Bush fast-tracked the lease through the Interior Department, and Barrick got its gold mine.

Today's value of the gold under that mountain in Nevada is $30 billion. With a "B." How much did the American people, via the Interior Department, get paid for it? In total, and in perpetuity? $10,000. No, not a typo: Ten thousand dollars.

The price of mining leases on public land, $2.50 an acre, has not been increased by ANY Congress since 1853. One wonders why.....

Bruce Babitt, Bill Clinton's Interior Secretary, called the Barrick Lease "The biggest gold heist since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Nothing could be done. It was signed, notarized, legally filed and binding on the US Government. Ten thousand dollars!

Six months after leaving office in 1993, GHW Bush was retained as a "Special Consultant" by Barrick Gold. How much did they pay him for his vast gold mining expertise? Nobody knows. As a private citizen, his tax returns and business affairs are sealed.

....And Satan took Him up unto a high mountain, and shewed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and all the wealth and glory thereof, and said unto Him, "All this will I give Thee, if Thou wilt bow down and worship Me." And Jesus said, "Get thee behind me Satan, for it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone."

*** Example 2:

A dirt-poor Scottish farmer in the 19th century heard anguished cries for help one day, as he was working his fields. He ran to help, and found a young lad trapped and sinking to his inevitable death in a bog. He rescued the boy, washed him off, and sent him on his way.

The next day, a fine carriage pulled up at the farmer's cottage, and a nobleman got out. It was the father of the boy the farmer had rescued, and the nobleman offered payment. The farmer adamantly refused, saying that saving the boy's life was only an act of Christian duty.

The farmer's son was standing in the doorway of the cottage, watching the exchange. The nobleman asked, "Is that your son?" The farmer said, yes, he was. The nobleman said, "This is what I will do. I will give your son an education equal to that of my own son, and if he is anything like his father, he will grow up to make us both proud." The farmer agreed.

The farmer's name was Fleming. His son graduated from the best universities in England, became a doctor and Fellow of the Royal Society, and was knighted by the King for his discovery of penicillin. His name was Sir Alexander Fleming. His discovery of antibiotics has saved countless millions of lives.

The nobleman's name was Sir Randolph Spencer-Churchill, younger brother of the Duke of Marlborough. His son's name was Winston - Sir Winston Churchill, who became Prime Minister in Britain's most dire hour of need in World War II. Without his stubborn, pig-headed obstinacy, Britain might well have come to terms with Nazi Germany, which today might be the ruler of Europe.

One day during the War, the Prime Minister lay desperately sick. His life was only saved by penicillin, discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming, the boy whose education Winston Churchill's father had paid for.

What goes around, comes around. Be of good cheer, for God will not be mocked. Neither does He forget His true servants in their hour of need.

that acre of paradise in one's backyard...now that was funny! but i don't have a backyard in this apartment, so i'll create an few square feet of paradise on my balcony

what follows is not a criticism, but some advice to you and anyone else who finds himself in this boat...

and i know there are some folks in this world getting over, especially those in power, but we still need to pray for them, God commanded it. or as my sister put it to me:

"don't get to heaven and the Lord shows two screens. on one screen he shows you bad mouthing the (political) guy for hours and how he is all messed up, and then on the other screen he shows you praying for him. and the screen is blank." God, at times, needs an intercessor. it's his passport into certain situations down here. and when we pray for those who abuse us, not only does it help us, but it also allows Him to intervene on the sinner's behalf, so that when the sinner stands (or kneels) before Him, the sinner will look on in shame as the Lord shows him all those who prayed for him, and how many times the Lord intervened on their behalf to save his soul, but his neck was so stiff, and his heart so hardened, that the Lord's efforts were in vain. and alas, he will cry for mercy, but won't get it. he will plead for his soul, but his cries will not be heard. and then it will finally sink in -- he's about to experience the most excruciating and unending pain..forever.

as for me and my house? i need to pray more for these folks because i admittedly fall in this boat.